Crash (The Human League album)

After spending two years recording their fourth album Hysteria, which met with only moderate commercial success, the band struggled to record further material. They recorded some new material with producer Colin Thurston at their 24-track studio in Sheffield and later Utopia Studios in London, who previously worked with them on the Reproduction album. However, the sessions did not work out after four months, partly because of the slow progress, Thurston's and the band's combined indecisiveness and the negative atmosphere surrounding the sessions. By 1985, musician/songwriter Jo Callis had left the group. Virgin Records, worried by the lack of progress in one of their leading acts, called the band principals to a meeting. As the problem was perceived to be the lack of production progress, it was suggested that the band take up an offer to work with Minneapolis-based production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. According to Oakey in a 1986 interview, for the band's songs, only the drum machine parts were kept from the London recordings with Thurston and Rabiger. Unlike on previous albums, the band allowed Jam and Lewis assume control as producers, with Philip Oakey adding that the band "had enough respect for them musically" and felt were talented enough to take on the responsibility. However, it was towards the end that disagreements arose with Jam and Lewis, resulting in Oakey pulling the band out of the sessions. They returned to Sheffield, leaving Jam and Lewis to take over and mix the four songs they contributed. Wright would not recover from the humiliation and left the band upon their return to the UK. Burden eventually quit in 1987. The album name was taken from a moment in the studio during the recording. Oakey described it thus: The album quickly became an unexpected success. One of Jam and Lewis's compositions, "Human", became the Human League's second number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 and their first UK top 10 single in over three years, peaking at number eight. Follow-ups "I Need Your Loving" and the 1988 release "Love Is All That Matters" were less successful, failing to reach the UK top 40. The album itself peaked at number seven in the UK (where it has been certified Gold for shipments in excess of 100,000 copies) and number 24 on the US Billboard 200. Oakey stated his discomfort with the record in 1995, saying: "The Jam and Lewis album [Crash] was just like being a puppet for four months. It was interesting to pick yourself out of the industrial north of England and dump yourself in Minneapolis. Great experience, but it just wasn't our album." However, in 2015, producer Jimmy Jam mentioned that the primary source of tension between the Human League and Jam and Lewis was the issue of background vocals. Jam thought Sulley and Catherall were good singers, but wanted to use them for the spoken parts on "Human". Jam and Lewis brought in their session vocalist Lisa Keith, who – with Lewis – performed the background vocals. This caused a rift between the producers and the group, which was started by Catherall who was discussing the issue with Oakey at the time of recording. Catherall did not like the idea of another female voice on the album, while Jam and Lewis thought Keith's vocals added to the songs. Jam explained: In 2005, Crash was re-issued with extended versions of the three singles. == Artwork ==

The out-of-focus cover photo was used to disguise the fact that it was taken at very short notice to meet a print deadline, after the disaster of the planned original photo shoot. Oakey originally wanted to return to the Vogue cover style of Dare artwork for Crash. He had persuaded Virgin Records to finance a studio photo shoot of the band with Vogue Paris-based photographer Guy Bourdin. The band were flown out to Paris for the two-day photo sessions. However, on arriving at Bourdin's studio, it became apparent that he was only interested in photographing the two female vocalists Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall. Matters came to a head when Bourdin ordered Sulley to do a handstand wearing a mini-skirt, a pose she considered inappropriate. After she turned on Bourdin and the two clashed angrily, the photographer refused to work with the band and they walked out of the session with the loss of all fees. Oakey would later comment that "we spent two days there, it took nine hours to set up one photograph and I daren't tell you how much money we spent." ==Reception==

}} Ken Tucker of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the album a two stars out of four rating, stating that the group's collaboration with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis "should have been exciting, but instead they are merely fitfully enjoyable since the melodies are wispy and the vocals weak." AllMusic's William Ruhlmann considered Crash a collection of "songs with appealing backing tracks that maintained their dance appeal while eschewing the overtly synthesized sound of previous albums", which made it "an improvement over the lackluster Hysteria, but still not on a par with Dare." ==Track listing==

The Human League • Ian Burden • Joanne Catherall • Philip Oakey • Jim Russell • Susan Ann Sulley • Philip Adrian Wright Additional musicians • Paul Rabiger – keyboard parts, arrangements • Lisa Keith – background vocals Technical • Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis – production • Steve Hodge – engineering • John McClain – executive production Artwork • Gavin Cochrane – photograph • The Human League – cover design, layout • Ken Ansell – cover design, layout • The Design Clinic – coordination ==Charts==